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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

How to Make your Easter Tree

Make this beautiful Easter Egg Tree
Centerpiece to decorate your table for this year's Easter dinner.

Here's
what you'll need to make one...

Supplies:

A small tree branch

White spray paint

Thread or unwaxed dental floss

Scissors

A small flower pot

Modeling clay or a bit of florist's foam

Easter grass

Ornaments (mini-eggs or other assorted woodies)

Start
by choosing a tree branch that's about 12-18 inches high when held up
with the thickest part towards the bottom. Check your yard for fallen
branches and twigs. You'll likely find a suitable dead branch already on
the ground, so you won't have to consider cutting of off a live tree to
make your Easter egg tree centerpiece. (Be kind to your environment!)

Next,
you'll spray-paint the branch with your white paint. Be sure to do this
in a well-ventilated area! Read the instructions on your spray-paint
can to find out how long it needs to dry. Remember, you don't have to do
the last couple inches at the bottom, because it won't show anyway.
That means that you can use that bit to hold onto, without getting paint
on your fingers.

Once the paint on your branch has dried, stick
your lump of clay on the bottom of the flowerpot. Then press the
thickest part of the branch, (the unpainted end), into the modeling
clay, so that the branch stands up, forming your Easter egg tree.

Now
you'll make the ornaments for your Easter Egg Tree Centerpiece. You can
buy a box of pre-made Easter egg tree ornaments, or you can get crafty
and make your own from mini-eggs or woodies or even those little
foil-wrapped chocolate eggs.

No matter which kind of ornaments you
choose, you'll need to attach strings to them so that they will dangle
from the branches of your Easter Egg Tree Centerpiece.

Cut as many
lengths of dental floss at you have ornaments. Depending on how big
your original branch was, your strings will probably be between three
and six inches long. Don't worry if they aren't all exactly the same
length, a little variety will just make your Easter egg tree more
interesting to look at.

Put a drop of glue on the top of each
ornament, and then lay one end of a piece of dental floss on each one.
Give those a chance to dry, and then tie a loop at the other end of each
piece of floss. Use the loops to hang the ornaments on the limbs of your Easter egg tree.

Finish
by adding Easter grass** to the bottom of the flowerpot, covering the
base of your branch. Your Easter Egg Tree Centerpiece is finished! Put
it on your dinner table, to brighten up your Easter meal.

Happy Easter!!

(**Did you know -- Easting plastic Easter grass is super-dangerous for
animals! If you have pets that might eat the Easter grass, skip the
plastic store-bought kind, and just shred or crumple some green
construction paper instead. Be safe!)